Lola's New Sweater

Obviously the only blogging I do is during school holidays! It has been awhile, but I have been quite crafty this last week! I have crocheted since I was a young girl, but it was always the same thing, zig-zag, bobbles, or single crochet. I didn't venture much beyond that. With Lola in dire need of a new sweater, I decided to get a bit fancy. For this little sweater, I used six small granny square flowers and a bobble trim. Isn't she the cutest little princess!

It's Been a Whirlwind!

I am so sorry that I have neglected my blog this past month, but boy oh boy has life been crazy. I have a TON to post over the next week so watch out! My oldest graduates from high school tomorrow, we have a new puppy, and I am back in school. I just keep reminding my self that this too will pass! I am going to start off my blog postings this week with some fun pics! The first pictures are of my graduate Austin. Because I am me, I took all of his graduation pictures. I couldn't bear to give this special task to someone else!!  We used several locations. My favorite was Pebble Beach, my son's "The Warehouse" (by the way the building is condemned, but there were some great shots!!)
THE WAREHOUSE

 PEBBLE BEACH/ CARMEL

The next pictures are of our new puppy Lola. She is a Yorkie and is as cute as a button!!

Thanks for indulging this proud mommy! Next post...Crafty Stuff!

CAN You Stand It? UPCYCLE FEVER

*Can Clippies*

I am trying to get prepared for an upcycle fashion class that I am teaching at The Santa Catalina School this Summer. I started goofing around with objects in my recycling bin and came up with this lovely little diddy! My 13 year old daughter was oohing and ahhhing over these cute can clips. There are going to be a great project from my students and they are guarateed to turn heads with these clippies!! For this project I used my old SIZZIX instead of attempting it on my Silhouette or KNK. Since the KNK can cut metal, I will be giving it a try soon! If you use your Silhouette for cutting aluminum do so at your own risk. I don't believe that it will have enough pressure to cut through it and it could damage your machine. If you don't have access to a cutter, just use a pair of tin snips or sharp scissors t get your shapes. I created the tutorial below just in case anyone else wants to give it a whirl! A few notes, there can be sharp edges so use caution (once cut and embossed the aluminum really isn't sharp at all, but if you have a stray little piece of metal on the edge, it can smart!! Try using various colors of cans. I came up with some great results with what I had lying around. Please comment below and let me know how your projects turned out!!

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Goodbye Birthdays and HELLO Grads! *-* FreEbiE *-*

I am on the tail end of my Spring birthday cards. YAHOO! I will post a few more pics later in the week, but this momma needed to switch it up a bit. As a mother of a high school senior (I know I can't believe it either) I have nearly 1 million 1 graduation cards to make before June 8th. While this might be a tiny exaggeration, it sure feels like it. There are days, like today, where I dream of my son being a loner, sitting in the dark corner of the quad, but I'll be damned he has more friends than this mamma could count. I have tried to talk him into dumping a few before the big day, but the stinker won't agree. Oh well, I might as well keep the sweatshop open for a few more weeks!

Today's card was truly a quickie. You can download the entire card file and the individual argyle sketch background HERE and HERE or in the sidebar. I must say, my favorite part of this card is the Argyle Sketch Background that I created. You have to admit, it is SOOOOOO stinkin' cute yet hipster cool! I can't wait to put it on everything. Be warned, there will be a BUNCH of argyle around here for quite awhile. I would love to see pictures of what you come up with using this sketch file!! I will be offering additional freebie sketch files this week. Be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss out!

Birthday Card Factory Running at Full Tilt!

I am just about OVER birthday cards. Every year I tell my self that I will make a few a month so that when April and May hit I am ready. Good intentions...but not reality! So between carpool, housework, and dishes, I got four more finished today. Here is a quick run down:
Julie's Peacock Princess

I LOVE THIS CARD! I usually go whimsical and leave the "elegant" for someone else, but I have really been wanting to use this design. The peacock came from Lettering Delights Denim Frills graphic set (link in sidebar). I created a cut file for my Silhouette and got to cutting. I backed the peacock with a square of acetate so that it appear that this delicate piece is supporting the whole card. I have been having a lot of fun with acetate lately (if you can't tell!). I actually didn't use annnnnyyyyy GLITTER today! It was really quite miraculous. I did however pull out the Swarovski crystals. The Moraccan design in the background was purchased from Silhouette Design Studio. This is sure to get RAVES!

Next UP: A Little Russ of Sophistication!

This little card is for my brother Russ. I went with a simple stair step card with some fun embellishments. I actually used the inside pieces of the Moraccan cut-out (see card above) to create the pattern on the front of the card. The monogram is LD Whale Tail (one of my favs) and the name RUSS is sketched using LD Cotton Candy font. To create a sketch file I simply opened up a new document in Silhouette Studio and typed in the words using the font that I wanted. I then went to OFFSET and did an internal offset. I sketched the outer line using a rust color glitter gel pen and the internal offset using glitter black. I purchased the gel pens and gel pen holders from AMY CHOMAS. If you head over there, be sure to tell her that I sent you! You can download my free Stair Step Card Template here or check the sidebar.
Arrow Stair Step Card:

This birthday card is for my brother James. This is a center panel stair step card (download for free) This card is even cuter in person. I adapted my original center panel stair step template to make way for the "J." This step to for freakin' ever. It is probably the last time I will do it as it would've been just as cute the simple way! I used LD Enquirer font for the monogram. The sketch letters were purchased from Silhouette Studio. All of the arrows were cut using the most amazing invention known to mankind- scissors! I just wanted them random and I was able to do it in the carpool lane so it worked perfectly!!
LASTLY: Magnet Birthday Card

My brother-in-law made a request this year, so here it is. It is actually VERY simple for me and I felt kind of guilty, but this is what he wanted!! The frame set was purchased from Silhouette Design Studio and the font is LD Whale Tail. For the magnet I used a sheet that I purchased at Beverly's Crafts. I chose not to use the Silhouette magnet material as it is too thin for me. Because of the weight of the magnet though, I had to haul out my KNK to cut this part. In the end it came out pretty cute! The second photo shows the card panel that I put the magnet on so that we could write a note!

Purchasing SVGs vs. Graphics Sets = What works best with Silhouette Studio

With the dollar daze sale at Lettering Delights coming to an end, it is time to make those purchases. In addition to offering fonts, doodlebats, and graphics, they have recently began to carry SVGs. Now for some SVGs are great. If you use SCAL or MTC they are a perfect addition to your cut library. For Silhouette users they are a bit trickier. You can't cut an SVG in Silhouette Design Studio. You have to first use a program like Inkscape to convert them  and then you can import them into SDS. You have to make sure that the layers are ungrouped and spread out individually all over the layout page. Then you procede to save as a new file type. When you "save as" you select DXF and when prompted you should only have checked "Use LWPOLYLINE type of line output" or the file will cause SDS to crash. The problem is that more often than not, when you import the file into SDS and ungroup them (to allow you to cut them seperately or modify them) the individual parts are broken into lots of pieces. For example, if you open a flower file you might find that the flower (which should be one piece) is segmented into 3 seperate pieces. This is why you have to seperate them and spread them over the layout page in Inkscape before saving them at DXF files. In short, it is a pain-in-the-_ _ s! I have also used their pngs to make cut files. I open the file in Inkscape and then select it and run "export to bitmap" When the export window appears, I select seperate by color, apply, and go back to the main screen. I then ungroup them and select the colors that I want to cut. This allows me to choose flat colors that will trace easier in SDS. I select the objects I want and then, under the file tab, I select export bitmap, chose where I want it to go and then click EXPORT. I can then open the new png file in SDS and simply use the trace tool to acquire my cuts. There is no regrouping of lines needed. I have found that I personally can work more efficiently with the graphic files. I am bummed because it would be so much easier just to open a cut file and go to work without all of the converting and exporting. I hope, especially with the Cricut drama, that Lettering Delights will consider offering the SVGs as GSDs as well. It would make it so much easier for Silhouette users. Until they do, I am going to keep purchasing the graphics as they are less expensive and it takes just as long to get cut files ready. This is just my two cents!!
Hugs and Blessings, Shelly

Another Day of Birthday Cards

Well, to say that I am "Birthday-ed Out" is an understatement. I finished two more last night and still have 6 more to make and mail this week. The only thing that I can figure is that my family members spend much of August indoors!! So, one of the cards that was at the top of my list was my step-dads. This is the FIRST card that I made for him.

When I started this card I thought O.K. I will put some flags on it and make a simple dude card. (FYI: LD Whale Tail and Typeset fonts). I am not sure what happened in the process. While I love the way it came out, unless your step-dad is Liberace, it is not going to work. I have a glitter addiction that I struggle to keep under control. Obviously, I need a recovery program! This card is now for my sister Julie.

So, after my Liberace moment I went in the opposite direction and went for a laugh. I made this card using the Eat, Drink, and Be Hairy set from Lettering Delights. The card came out perfect and I am sure my very hairy step-dad will love it! (yes, I did sneak some glitter on it....I couldn't resist.)